Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Silver Linings – Part 1

First we had Haiti, and now we have Chile. Two significant tragedies – both of them earthquakes – that have caused widespread damage. Yet God has some good can come out of such things, terrible as they are at the time.

(1) Rebuilding: One good thing that can come out of such a disaster is rebuilding better and stronger than ever. Much of Europe was laid waste, and so it was rebuilt in a modern and more efficient way. With the help of the Marshall Plan, Europe’s industrial plant was the most modern in the world. Eventually Europe began to proper once more.

(2) Israel: One of the most horrific tragedies in the history of the world was the attempted extermination of the Jews by the Nazis. Yet out of that unspeakable crime emerged a new independent nation, re-established after 2,000 years. While Israel is still having troubles with its hostile neighbors, they have survived, thrived and occupied the land. Although most of the Jewish people in Israel aren’t particularly religious, I do believe it was God’s will that they be restored to nationhood.

(3) Coming Together: Another good thing is that people come together to help when there is some kind of disaster. We saw pictures from Haiti that showed strangers digging people out of the rubble with their bare hands. Mostly organizations, plus some individuals, came from all over the world to help find survivors, care for the enjoyed, feed the hungry, and bury the dead.

Although the snow we got is nothing compared to the devastation caused the these two recent earthquakes, it still caused dangerous situations and inconvenience. I think the snow is piled about the highest I’ve seen in the nearly 8 years we’ve been in Beacon – and they’re talking about more!

I’ve heard all kinds of stories of how people helped out folks having a need. Those who still had electricity took in those who didn’t, for example. Some stayed overnight rather than try to sleep in a cold house. Some shoveled the sidewalks of those who weren’t able to do so because of age or infirmity. Those doing such good deeds probably don’t realize what a gift that was. My wife and I do, because we were the beneficiaries of some of that help.

The doctor didn’t want me exerting myself after just being operated on. So my wife called a plow guy we know and asked him if he could do our driveway just this one time. He was very kind and did so, but then more snow came.

On Friday, a neighbor knocked on the door and asked if he could borrow the snow blower – he wanted to get the remaining snow off our driveway. On Saturday some of our church family stopped by to see how we were doing. They couldn’t reach us because we had no electricity or phone service. They ended up getting the rest of the snow off the driveway for us so it wouldn’t get packed down and become a sheet of ice. All of this was a tremendous blessing to us.